REMARKS BY PRESIDENT CLINTON,
PRIME MINISTER BARAK OF ISRAEL
AND FOREIGN MINISTER AL-SHARA OF SYRIA
The Rose Garden

10:12 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. It is an honor to welcome Prime
Minister Barak, Foreign Minister al-Shara, and the members of the Israeli
and Syrian delegations here to the White House.

When the history of this century is written, some of its most
illustrious chapters will be the stories of men and women who put old
rivalries and conflicts behind them, and looked ahead to peace and
reconciliation for their children. What we are witnessing today is not yet
peace, and getting there will require bold thinking and hard choices. But
today is a big step along that path.

Prime Minister Barak and Foreign Minister al-Shara are about to
begin the highest-level meeting ever between their two countries. They are
prepared to get down to business. For the first time in history, there is
a chance of a comprehensive peace between Israel and Syrian, and indeed,
all its neighbors.

That Prime Minister Barak and Foreign Minister al-Shara chose to
come here to Washington reminds us of one other fact, of course, which is
the United States' own responsibility in this endeavor. Secretary Albright
and I, and our entire team, will do everything we possibly can to help the
parties succeed. For a comprehensive peace in the Middle East is vital not
only to the region, it is also vital to the world, and to the security of
the American people. For we have learned from experience that tensions in
the region can escalate, and the escalations can lead into diplomatic,
financial, and, ultimately, military involvement, far more costly than even
the costliest peace.

We should be clear, of course, the success of the enterprise we
embark upon today is not guaranteed. The road to peace is no easier, and
in many ways it is harder than the road to war. There will be challenges
along the way, but we have never had such an extraordinary opportunity to
reach a comprehensive settlement.

Prime Minister Barak, an exceptional hero in war, is now a
determined soldier for peace. He knows a negotiated peace, one that serves
the interests of all sides, is the only way to bring genuine security to
the people of Israel, to see that they are bound by a circle of peace.

President Assad, too, has known the cost of war. From my
discussion with him in recent months, I am convinced he knows what a true
peace could do to lift the lives of his people and give them a better
future. And Foreign Minister al-Shara is an able representative of the
President and the people of Syria.

Let me also say a brief word about the continuing progress of the
Palestinian track. Chairman Arafat also has embarked on a courageous quest
for peace, and the Israelis and the Palestinians continue to work on that.

We see now leaders with an unquestioned determination to defend
and advance the interest of their own people, but also determined to
marshal the courage and creativity, the vision and resolve, to secure a
bright future based on peace, rather than a dark future under the storm
clouds of continuing, endless conflict.

At the close of this millennium, and in this season of religious
celebration for Jews, for Muslims, for Christians, Israelis, Palestinians,
Syrians, Lebanese, all have it within their power to end decades of bitter
conflict. Together, they can choose to write a new chapter in the history
of our time. Again, let me say that today's meeting is a big step in the
right direction. And I am profoundly grateful for the leaders of both
nations for being here.

We have just talked and agreed that it would be appropriate for
each leader to say a few brief words on behalf of the delegation. We will
take no questions, in keeping with our commitment to do serious business
and not cause more problems than we can solve out here with you and all
your helpful questions.

But I will begin with Prime Minister Barak.

PRIME MINISTER BARAK: We came here to put behind us the horrors
of war and to step forward toward peace. We are fully aware of the
opportunity, of the burden of responsibility, and of the seriousness,
determination and devotion that will be needed in order to begin this
march, together with our Syrian partners, to make a different Middle East
where nations are living side by side in peaceful relationship and in
mutual respect and good-neighborliness.

We are determined to do whatever we can to put an end and to
bring about the dreams of children and mothers all around the region to see
a better future of the Middle East at the entrance to the new millennium.
Thank you very much.

FOREIGN MINISTER AL-SHARA: Although it's very cold, I prepared a
statement, and I would like to thank, first of all, President Clinton for
all the efforts that he exerted with his Secretary of State and the peace
team here in Washington. And also, I what like to convey the best
greetings and wishes from President Assad, and his high appreciation for
the efforts which you and Secretary Albright have exerted for the
resumption of the peace talks between Syria and Israel from the point at
which they stopped in 1996.

Your announcement, Mr. President, was warmly welcomed, both in
Syria and in the Arab world, and its positive echoes resonated in the world
at large. That is because it promises, for the first time, the dawn of a
real hope to achieve an honorable and just peace in the Middle East.

And as you have mentioned in your letter of October 12, 1999 to
President Assad, the issues have crystallized and difficulties defined.
That is why if these talks are to succeed as rapidly as we all desire, no
one should ignore what has been achieved until now, or what still needs to
be achieved.

It goes without saying that peace for Syria means the return of
all its occupied land; why, for Israel, peace will mean the end of the
psychological fear which the Israelis have been living in as a result of
the existence of occupation, which is undoubtedly the source of all
adversities and wars. Hence, ending occupation will be balanced for the
first time by eliminating the barrier of fear and anxieties, and exchanging
it with a true and mutual feeling of peace and security. Thus, the peace
which the parties are going to reach will be established on justice and
international legitimacy. And thus, peace will be the only triumphant,
after 50 years of struggle.

Those who reject to return the occupied territories to their
original owners in the framework of international legitimacy send a message
to the Arabs that the conflict between Israel and Arabs is a conflict of
existence in which bloodshed can never stop, and not a conflict about
borders which can be ended as soon as parties get their rights, as
President Assad has stressed at these meetings more than once before, and
after Madrid peace conference.

We are approaching the moment of truth, as you have said, and
there is no doubt that everyone realizes that a peace agreement between
Syria and Israel, and between Lebanon and Israel, would indeed mean for our
region the end of a history of wars and conflicts, and may well usher in a
dialogue of civilization and an honorable competition in various domains --
the political, cultural, scientific, and economic.

Peace will certainly pose new questions to all sides, especially
for the Arab side, who will wonder after reviewing the past 50 years,
whether the Arab-Israeli conflict was the one who solely defied the Arab
unity, or the one which frustrated it.

During the last half-century, in particular, the vision of the
Arabs and their sufferings were totally ignored, due to the lack of a media
opportunity for them which conveys their points of view to international
opinion. And the last example of this is what we have witnessing during
the last four days of attempts to muster international sympathy with the
few thousand of settlers in the Golan, ignoring totally more than half a
million Syrian people who were uprooted from tens of villages on the Golan,
where their forefathers lived for thousands of years and their villages
were totally wiped out from existence.

The image formulated in the minds of Western people and which
formulated in public opinion was that Syria was the aggressor, and Syria
was the one who shelled settlements from the Golan prior to the 1967 war.
These claims carry no grain of truth in them -- as Moshe Dayan, himself,
has explained in his memoirs, that it was the other side who insisted on
provoking the Syrians until they clashed together and then claimed that the
Syrians are the aggressors.

Mr. President, the peace talks between Israel and Syria have been
ongoing for the last eight years, with off and on, of course. We hope that
this is going to be the last resumption of negotiations which will be
concluded with a peace agreement, a peace based on justice and
comprehensivity; an honorable peace for both sides that preserves rights,
dignity and sovereignty. Because only honorable and just peace will be
embraced by future generations, and it is the only peace that shall open
new horizons for totally new relations between peoples of the region.

President Assad has announced many years ago that peace is the
strategic option of Syria. And we hope that peace has become the strategic
option for others today, in order to have or to leave future generations a
region that is not torn with wars, a region whose sky is not polluted by
the smell of blood and destruction.

We all here agree that we are at a threshold of an historic
opportunity, an opportunity for the Arabs and Israelis alike, and for the
United States and the world at large. Therefore, we all have to be
objective and show a high sense of responsibility in order to achieve a
just and comprehensive peace, a peace that has been so long awaited by all
the peoples of our region and the world at large.

Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. We're
going to work.